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Thursday, May 9, 2013

Black Culture, Uncle Remus, and Political Correctness

This morning I had a sad conversation at breakfast with two friends. We were lamenting the impact of political correctness on black culture. It began with Veronica's relating the unfortunate outcome for a fellow FEMA employ who, at a morning briefing, described a problem as becoming a "real tar baby." By the same afternoon EEO had him removed from his position, segregated and sidelined, (much easier than firing).

Now intelligent people know a reference to a "tar baby" is not a racially motivated statement. The tar baby was Br'er Fox's trick to capture Br'er Rabbit by getting him stuck in tar which just happens to be black. It is similar to saying something like, "The only way to get rid of that problem is put it in cement shoes and throw it in the river." Is that a racially motivated statement because cement is relatively white? Hardly! At any rate, it reminded my friends and me of the infamous "niggardly" statement which demonstrated not only the power of political correctness, but the ignorance of those bringing the accusations.

At any rate, one thing led to another and we began talking about Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, and the wonderful Disney film, Song of the South. Uncle Remus is a treasure of black culture and Joel Chandler Harris was its champion. He traveled around northern Georgia meticulously transcribing stories that had their origin in the African past of blacks brought to the United States as slaves. These stories were a direct link to a rich past. Not only did Harris transcribe the stories, but he meticulously reproduced the dialect, a linguistic magnum opus. He never took credit for the stories; he wasn't the architect, only the builder. But he created a tremendous body of work revealing the originality, the intelligence, and the wisdom of black storytelling. It is a beautiful history that, like the story of Little Black Sambo, shows how wit and intelligence save the day. And yet, black children are denied these wonderful stories because of the idiotic embrace of a mindless political correctness.

So how is the wise and kind grandfatherly Uncle Remus treated? As someone to be trashed and buried as an embarrassment. What has taken the place of his stories? Black rap with the glorification of cop-killing, abuse, and rape. White racists could hardly do better than to convince blacks that dumping Uncle Remus and elevating Ice T is the ticket to respect. That blacks have bought into the nonsense is the victory of an anti-black, liberal establishment that wants to keep blacks on their plantation with bread and circuses. Three cheers for liberals. They destroyed the black family with Johnson's "great society and thrust a rich tradition onto the trash heap with political correctness.

If I were a black parent I would search out the story of the creative little black boy, Sambo, who outsmarts the vicious (and stupid) liberal tigers (Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden) and the wise and delightful stories of the kind and loving Uncle Remus. These stories are a heritage of which to proud! And Walt Disney had the foresight to make a movie glorifying the best of black storytelling with a black hero, Uncle Remus, of whom any family could be proud! I mourn the loss of Song of the South for my own children. It is Uncle Remus, not the white adults, who is the hero for the little white boy in the film. Burying the film and Uncle Remus in the archives of Disney to decay and disappear is a tragedy for both blacks and whites!

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Another example is Uncle Tom of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Of course, that name is considered a term of derision in the Black community.

Yet, I remember the first time I read that book I was amazed that Blacks weren't proud of this character. I wanted to be like Uncle Tom because I admired the character in this book so much and I'm white.

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